Quite aside from the quality of Tony Marchant's drama, which I have written more about for this Sunday's Observer, it will be remembered as the film that not only introduced Matthew McNulty (who looked anything but a newcomer as Shane -- a role that would have demanded a great deal from an old hand) but showcased 22-year-old Gerard Kearns (Treacle) as probably one of the finest young British actors of his generation - and I think a blog can sustain the occasional cliché ...

So impressive recently as Ian Gallagher in Shameless, The Mark of Cain gave Kearns a fairly unique opportunity to show us how apparently effortlessly he is able to segue between vulnerability and machismo, which is what being a young man is probably, painfully, all about. It's a quality that will take him as far as he wants to go.

He has a great man/boy face, too - never handsome, but indubitably cute, he'll soon (if he isn't already) be snagging those parts Jamie Bell probably thinks he owns. American directors will adore him. What a find.